Saturday mornings belong to the under-12s league, which means I spend most of them on a folding chair at the edge of a field, half-watching the game and half-watching the other parents’ snack coolers.
What changed after the team chiropractor visit
The club arranged a screening session at the start of the season — a physio and a chiropractor checking posture and gait for a squad of kids who’d all had a growth spurt over the summer break. Nothing came back as a problem for my son specifically, but the coach now runs a two-minute stretch routine before kickoff that wasn’t there last year.
Half of the parents grumbled about the extra two minutes eating into warm-up time. The other half, myself included, were glad someone was finally looking at how eleven boys who’d all grown four inches were actually standing.
Half-time, revisited
Orange segments used to be the standard half-time snack on this team, and they still show up in most coolers. I switched to dates last season, mostly because oranges leave sticky hands on a football and dates don’t. They also don’t need peeling by a parent standing in the cold at 9am, which on a Saturday in winter matters more than it should.
The stash
I keep a bag in the car boot, topped up from the Dates Fruit range, and check the healthy food selection whenever the usual bag runs low. Questions about what we stock and when go through Contact Us.